


The Family You Choose

by nchardak



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-30
Updated: 2013-06-06
Packaged: 2017-12-13 10:08:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/823071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nchardak/pseuds/nchardak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Centering on one scene from and aftermath of Into Darkness, and the family dynamics of the Enterprise, from the pov of Uhura, Actual Space Queen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Uhura knows the seal is holding. That between the construction and Scotty’s modifications, the radiation spilling through the door is no more deadly than what the universe produces on a cellular level. 

Nevertheless, Uhura feels her mouth go dry, her head starting to pound. She was already sweating, but now she’s cold. And seeing him slumped against the door, crumpled to the glass makes her stomach roil. 

She could always control her emotions. It was one of the things that had attracted Spock to her, initially. Uhura is slow to anger, judicious with her smiles, and resistant to tears. More so than most humans, anyway.

But now Spock is breaking too, more clearly than she is, and it’s a rug pulled from beneath her feet to watch him, hands pushing at the glass as though he might pull Kirk out if he tries hard enough. 

Uhura barely notices that she’s warmer now, that there’s an arm around her shoulders. She smells tangy metal and sweat and it’s Scotty, so she presses herself against him. He’s seeking as much comfort as he’s giving; his hands are shaking. Scotty’s hands, and she’s seen him handle a warp core breach while hungover, use a hyperspanner during evasive maneuvers, and he’s letting tears drop down onto Uhura’s hair. So she lets her own go, feels his shirt slowly dampening under her eyes, because she suddenly can’t look, she can’t watch him die, can’t see the anguish sweep across Spock’s face. 

But she hears him scream, and the pain she hears is the same as when he lost his mother, when he lost his planet.


	2. Chapter 2

"You're such an asshole for waking up while we weren't all here."

Kirk looks terrible, but Uhura guesses that's to be expected from being pulled back from death at the last moment. He manages his shit-eating grin just fine, though. 

"Sorry to disappoint, Lieutenant. What took you so long to come see me? Even Scotty pulled himself away from the Enterprise wreckage."

Uhura shakes her head at him, rolling her eyes to disguise willing the tears away, "There's a substantial amount of paperwork involved when one attacks a Starfleet Admiral. Someone's gotta do it."

"Uhura."

_"What?"_ It comes out more forcefully than she'd intended. 

"I'm alright."

"I know, Jim." 

"Do you? I saw you there when I -"

"Died?" She looks at him now, full on, and his eyes are so bizarrely blue, and it reminds her of the light in the warp reactor, and she swallows hard, "I saw you die, Jim. And Spock lost it."

"I know."

"Do you? Do you really? Spock _lost it_ , and he almost killed himself going after Harrison. For you. Because you died. And I had to go save _him_."

For once, Kirk is quiet.

"So when I heard you'd woken up, that you were alright, I thought 'well, I'm going to march right in there and tell him never to do that again,' but I realized I'd be telling you not to sacrifice yourself for us, for your crew, and I just..." Uhura sighs heavily and looks out the window, "I can't imagine a life without you. All of you."

Kirk stays silent for another moment, and she can feel him looking at her, "So I take it you're not resigning your commission?" 

"You're such an asshole."


	3. Chapter 3

Kirk falls asleep, mumbling about Bones and sedatives. Uhura slips out quietly. McCoy himself is at the nurse's desk, arguing in a low volume with a young doctor, her blond hair piled on her head. 

"-don't care if Hippocrates himself is the on-duty physician , I'm the CMO for Captain Kirk," McCoy growls, "and I intend to remain here while his condition remains critical -"

"That may be, sir," the doctor interrupts desperately, "but have you not been here for over twenty-five hours already?"

"That's not the point. I've gone much longer without sleep, missy, and if you think -"

"Leonard," Uhura says softly. 

He jerks as though she'd hit him, spinning around. 

"Uhura! I'd forgotten you were here. How's he doing?"

"He's fine. When's the last time you ate?"

The doctor looks warily from one officer to the other, holding her padd like she might have to throw it at any time.

"I had a...a sandwich."

"Don't make me roll my eyes, Doctor, I just got done talking to Jim so I think they might detach if I do it much more."

McCoy crumples visibly, "well, what do you want me to do? He's still in critical condition -"

"You brought him back to life," Uhura says, "he'll be alright for the next eight hours."

"But what if -"

"Dr. Chapel can handle it."

"Damnit, stop interrupting me!"

"And she can call you if anything happens. Right?"

Chapel nods, smiling at Uhura.

"Come on, we'll get something to eat," Uhura gently lays a hand on his elbow and turns him toward the elevators, "they put Spock and I in temporary quarters just down the road. You can sleep on the sofa for a while and be here in ten minutes if you get a call. Which you won't."

"Fine. But we're eating real food, not some Vulcan excuse for a salad."

"Of course."

"And I don't want to walk in on your boyfriend doing anything...weird."

"I assure you, the feeling is mutual."


	4. Chapter 4

Uhura hears a lot of things, even when she's not plugged in to the bridge of a starship. It comes naturally to her to pay attention to conversations surrounding her, though she's never held with gossip. 

It's early afternoon, and Sulu has come by to drop off a padd detailing his part in the Harrison incident that Spock is collecting for his official report. Uhura invites him in for a cup of tea. 

"I heard a rumor about you," she says, pouring the Vulcan tea into two mugs, ignoring the knowledge that Spock would frown slightly and say something about using the proper cups for the particular varietal. 

Sulu gives the facial equivalent of a shrug and sips the tea, and Uhura can see the effort he takes to avoid grimacing at it. Vulcan food is an acquired taste. 

"I heard that a vid of your time as acting captain was seen by a few important people," she continues, taking a dainty sip, telling herself that it's good for the immune system.

Sulu huffs and sets his tea down, leaning on the kitchen counter behind him, "I was captain for less than an hour. All did was threaten a terrorist."

"Well, it impressed someone. You're up for a promotion."

Sulu raises his eyebrows slightly and Uhura feels certain he's not really looking at the bottom of the kitchen cupboard. 

"Yeah, I'd heard," he says. 

Uhura smiles faintly into the mug. His report could have easily been sent via the standard mail system. 

"And?"

"And - and I'd have to leave the Enterprise," he says, "you know that. I'd be promoted to first officer, sure, but..."

She smiles at him openly now, "I thought about leaving too. For a fraction of a second, after everything. After I realized that every day we'll be risking our lives on that ship, especially if we take that five-year mission. And when we almost lost the captain, I - well. I thought about leaving."

Sulu is quiet for a moment, remembering his tea and gulping it down quickly. But he looks down at the mug and swirls it, watching the dregs spin in the brown liquid.

"You know how we give Scotty a hard time for the way he treats the Enterprise like his girlfriend?"

"It's more than a girlfriend, it's more like a wife he shares with the captain."

Sulu laughs, and it's a good sound, genuine, and it's been a while since Uhura heard it, "well, sometimes I know how he feels. I'm not about to set up camp at my post like Scotty does, but it's just...when I'm sitting there, piloting that ship, it's something I can't even describe."

"And you don't want to leave," Uhura says.

"I do," he says, steeling himself and swallowing the rest of the tea, "but not yet."

"You'll be a great captain," she smiles again, "but I feel better knowing you're behind the console for now."

"Thanks." 

Uhura pulls the mug from his hand and turns to the sink, "remember when you forgot to disengage the inertial dampeners?" 

She can almost hear him roll his eyes, "I remember when I accidentally saved all our lives."

"You're accidentally the best pilot in Starfleet, Hikaru."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I'm slowly working through the senior officers? Thanks for reading this far.


	5. Chapter 5

Uhura isn't sleeping by the time Spock comes home. He says nothing, though he knows she is still awake, and he quietly goes about his nightly routine. Since they'd begun living together, Spock has made the attempt to sleep for a few hours each night despite needing less than she does. 

She appreciates it, as she appreciates how he welcomes the turn of her body into his as he gets into bed. Uhura isn't really a cuddler; she can't sleep in someone's arms like old boyfriends have wanted, but sometimes she needs it, and she presses her face against Spock's cool skin and feels his arm pull her in closer. 

"How did it go?" she whispers. 

Spock considers for a moment, "I believe it could have gone better." 

Uhura smiles at the very human choice of words, though his cadence is pure Vulcan.

"The ship is sufficiently damaged that Starfleet will need to construct another before we can depart on the proposed exploration voyage."

Uhura sucks in a breath, "I bet the captain didn't like that."

"He did not. Additionally, Mr. Scott began to cry."

"How do you feel?" sometimes she asks him out of habit; almost everyone else she knows responds to that question. 

"I am sorry for my part in the Enterprise's destruction, however necessary my actions may have been. It was an exemplary vessel. However, it is logical that a new ship, with updated systems, will be superior to a repaired, even retrofitted Enterprise."

There was a time when Spock smelled strange to Uhura. She breaths in the scent of his skin and wonders when that changed, whether she's gotten used to it or if he just smells more human now. 

"How's Jim?"

"He has all but recovered from his experience. He asked me to extend you salutations, and a wish to visit with you soon."

Uhura smiles against Spock's chest, "good," she says, before she kisses him softly and rolls away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spock/Kirk/Uhura is totally my OT3 so I tried to wedge some of that in this chapter slightly. If you squint really really hard.


	6. Chapter 6

It's 0300 hours and Uhura is unfortunately sober. 

She thinks longingly of the future, the morning, when she'll wake up at a reasonable hour and feel very pleasant, perhaps slightly groggy from lack of sleep, but nothing a cup of tea won't cure. For now, it is 0300 hours and Uhura is escorting two men away from the bar. It's cold and wet, as San Fransisco tends to be, and too late she realizes she left her shrug sitting on the back of a barstool. 

Scotty is singing something in Gaelic and Uhura can't understand it. She's not sure it _is_ Gaelic; usually she has no problems understanding Scotty even when he's at his most excited and patriotic, but the bartender found something alien and vibrant and green behind the bar, and it smelled like wet dog mixed with the Andorian approximation of formaldehyde, and Scotty had drank at least half the bottle. 

Chekov is holding his head and groaning. That'll be the champagne, which they'd started the evening with. The rest of the drinks the senior staff (as well as complete strangers) had bought for him probably weren't helping. 

Uhura winds an arm around his waist, "It's against the rules to wake up the morning after your eighteenth birthday feeling anything but terrible."

Chekov's response is to push away from her suddenly and vomit into a nearby refuse bin. 

Once he's finished, he looks up blearily at Uhura and Scotty, who is laughing, "I don't remember vhat I drank tonight."

"That's alright. We'll make sure you don't die of alcohol poisoning."

"I thought ye were Russian laddie!" Scotty shouts, "what 'appened to - to vodka fer breakfast! Potatoes an'- an' that sort of thing..."

Uhura ignores him and steers Chekov away from the bin, his arm over her shoulder. He feels so small, and she files away another angry shout for later at Kirk for letting him get carried away. As an afterthought, she pulls Scotty towards her as well, and he surprisingly cooperates. He tends to wander when drunk. 

She doesn't know where either of them are staying. Scotty won't stop laughing when she asks, and Chekov only mumbles something in Russian and almost vomits again. So she takes them to her quarters. 

"It'll be like a slumber party," she says to them, thinking of how her and Spock's quarters are lately apparently a motel for wayward crew, "except you're both sleeping in the bathroom." 

It's Chekov's birthday so he gets the floor in front of the toilet. Scotty has to sleep curled up in the shower. 

Spock stays with the equally inebriated Kirk and McCoy (Sulu, also relatively sober, drew the long straw and got to sleep in his own bed without anyone in his bathroom) until the sun rises, and he returns with several anti-hangover hyposprays to find Uhura sitting cross-legged on the sofa drinking tea and reading the morning dispatches. Scotty has also roused himself, eschewing the Vulcan tea ("not unless ye want me to ruin yer carpet, lass.") and contenting himself with water. 

He looks up blearily as Spock enters. The Vulcan looks almost judgmental as he unceremoniously injects Scotty with a hypospray. 

"Good morning," he says to Uhura, "Where is Ensign Chekov?"

The clear sound of retching from the bathroom answers his question and Spock goes to deliver.

"Och! Thank you, Commander."

"You are welcome, Mr. Chekov. To repay my and Lieutenant Uhura's kindness, I will ask that you return this room to the clean state with which you found it."

Groans emerge.

"Once the electrolytes have begun to take effect. And with Mr. Scott's assistance, of course."

"You know Russians inwented ze hangower cure, sir."

"I do not believe that is accurate," Spock comes out of the bathroom and Uhura smiles at him. 

"Thank you," she says. 

"No," he says, and his eyes are smiling now, his eyebrows cocked in that way Uhura knows so well, "thank you. I could not have taken care of all of them without you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Augh I was trying to avoid the old "everyone is at a party getting drunk" fic but it's Chekov damnit, and if we can't give him crap for being a tiny baby what can we do. Also, I decided that age of majority for drinking in the Future is 18 and that he's turning 18 shortly after the events of STID! Also, accents!


End file.
